Users CHASING FOR Improvements
For e-commerce business Singapore Home Cooks, flying a 95 kg goods from cause areas like Japan and South Korea costs about S$ 1, 000 ( US$ 340 ), which is five times more expensive than shipping it by water.
Given that it includes fragile goods like fruits and snacks, ocean transport is a danger the company may get.
According to Canlian Liew, the company’s corporate communications director, the company has slightly raised rates, explaining to customers that this is because of higher logistics costs.
” I think 80 per cent ( of the time ), we absorb the cost ourselves, and then only 20 per cent we will do a little bit more mark-up”, she added.
The business solutions goods from overseas, particularly promotional items that are usually not available in Singapore, and sells them through Facebook livestreaming. Finally, in most cases, it coordinates shipping with a shipping company.
Ocean shipments have been delayed by at least a month according to switch congestion. It would have taken half as long to ship payload to Singapore a year ago.
” Next day, it was one send all the way to Singapore so it’s really straightforward”, noted Ms Liew.
” But straight then, they use a different way. Our cargo is moved and reloaded onto a different ship at every distinct time, and they are unable to track the shipment at that time. So they are also not able to offer us an approximated timeline”, she added.
According to Ms. Liew, the company is unable to guarantee its customers that their products will appear within the typical four to six-week delivery schedule.
She recalled that every day, there were clients chasing us for updates and that she recalls the knowledge that my administration team had. Asking,’ Hey, when (are ) my shipping coming? When is my fruit arriving? Has the sale arrived in Singapore?’
” Alas, a majority of our customers are very understanding, because the slot congestion is something that is not up to us to manage.”
She claimed that about 20 % of consumers requested refunds, which meant the business also suffered loss.